Last week I posted a rather strong critique of the Truth’s Table podcast entitled “Gender Apartheid.” Those who have followed this blog know that I subsequently took the post down because of charges of racism that were being leveled against me. Yes, I chickened out. Those charges were wicked and untrue.

Because I mentioned this controversy last week, I’ll post the followup here. The original article I linked last week has been pulled – you can see the explanation in the article above. I’m very disheartened by the way this has played out, since none of the vitriol or confusion has been resolved in any meaningful way. Especially disheartening is that even Todd’s attempt to engage w/ the podcast was met with charges of racism serious enough to dissuade him from pursuing the critique. I absolutely understand why he would duck out of this particular controversy, but the tone of the response to his original article sets a genuinely discouraging pallor over the whole mess.

The above article links both a podcast and an article on the topic – I strongly recommend reading them both, if this is an issue which touches your context. I would venture to say that, even if you don’t feel that your ministry is facing these particular challenges at the moment, you certainly will see this issue and the language used being brought to bear on you as well. It’s the simple equation of the language of the popular culture leaking into the church, and we are fools if we think that we are not susceptible to the same.

It seems our new president is wrapping himself in Wilsonian garb, sending American forces out into far-flung precincts of the globe in behalf of humanitarian sentiments.Robert Merry

You may or may not regard this as a positive thing – I’m hearing fairly polarized opinions from many in the Christian community. The article linked above is a rather negative appraisal of the president’s action, although you can listen to today’s The Briefing for a more positive representation. I personally find myself genuinely conflicted – certainly, a nation needs to be willing to carry through on its threats, but it is quite debatable whether those threats were a wise decision in the first place. As a parent of small children, I absolutely know what it’s like to make a stupid threat to your kids, and when they violate the terms, you have to do what you have to do. That being said, you usually have to repent of your own stupidity when the whole thing is said and done.

I have a great deal of fear regarding Trump’s foreign policy. I was legitimately hopeful that we might have a trend away from the global interventionism which has defined literally every single presidential administration in my living memory, but this action seems to suggest otherwise. Mostly, I am afraid of another Iraq, another Vietnam, where we bind ourselves down into a futile and self-defeating action of suppression and nation-building on foreign soil which leaves a substantially less stable situation than the crisis which we stepped into. We are not at the point yet where this seems to be an immediate danger, but I pray that President Trump has the wisdom to avoid such a situation.

Whether or not you agree with my assessment here, I do think that we can agree that Trump really should go through congress for this, as suggested. There is a reason that the constitution puts hedges on these things, and the crisis in Syria is manifestly a humanitarian crisis, not a crisis of national security, despite the blathering to the contrary.

The first thing we ought to do is probably obey the Constitution.Rand Paul

There are a few things in life that are legitimately a crisis and we ought to be willing to acknowledge a genuine crisis as such. But, your child being mildly teased or insulted at school is not a crisis. Your child sitting the bench on their sports team is not a crisis. A teacher or coach speaking harshly to your child is not a crisis. Your child not getting the part in the school play is not a crisis. Your child getting cut from a sports team is not a crisis. Your child striking out to lose the game is not a crisis. All of these things may be unpleasant, but they are opportunities for Christian parents to instruct their children, discipling them in a cruciform worldview.David Prince

I think that the above quote is beautiful and basically sums up the article. If we treat our children as if they are the center of the world, they will inevitably think of themselves in precisely those terms. This one is very worth a quick read.

Jason Waeber is an elder at Grace Bible Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, OH, where he worships with his wife and three children. He is also a seminary student, under care with the Great Lakes Presbytery. As GBPC is looking forward to planting a church with him in the next few years, he felt called to develop the online presence of the denomination, both for outreach and the doctrinal maturity of the denomination. The Manna and the Stone is his attempt to pursue this. Currently, Jason is serving as the general editor for the site.